20 Years of Spider-Man Improvement

I moved recently and things have been busy, so I won’t be able to get a new comic up this week. I’m working hard on it right now though– it’s the biggest one so far– the title of the essay is going to be: “Hug the Elephant.” Please stay tuned!

In the meantime, I wanted to show you something special. I was digging through old sketchbooks while packing for the move and I found these little gems– drawings of Spider-Man I made from age 6 onward. I’ve been drawing Spider-Man periodically for about 20 years!

Here’s my progress!

Age 6:

Age 9:

Age 14:

Age 18:

Age 22:

Seeing improvement is fun, isn’t it? Today I decided to draw another entry to the spiderman series:

Age 25:

I want to encourage you guys to revisit your work every month or so. If you are consistently making things, you’ll be able to see a progression in your work, which helps you keep going.

That’s amazing. I’ve been drawing since forever but sadly I’ve chucked out a lot of my old drawings cos I never feel they were good enough or just too embarrassed to show them to people. Sometimes I wished I kept them around to show the evolution. I’ve been keeping the ones from recent years but not from my kid days. Thanks for the share, it’s absolutely brilliant!

Hi! Just wanted to say it’s awesome you were able to locate your old drawings from when you were a kid! It’s great seeing people improve their creative and artistic abilities as they grow up. :3 Unfortunately, I’ve moved a couple of times since I was 6, and the vast majority of my drawings were lost to the moves, time, forgetfulness, etc. I might have a couple of drawings from back when I was 10 or 11. I should dig them up…

It is really awesome to go back and look at your own work. Then to revisit it after so many months or years! Like, redrawing something you did awhile ago using the skills, knowledge, and style you’ve acquired since then. Man, I wanna do that now… Anyways, thank you for all your fantastic illustrated essays! Looking forward to reading any new ones that come out.

This is really cool, I love seeing progress like this. It gives me inspiration, like all your other essays and works, to keep working. Not practicing, but stealing, as you put it. ;P It’s a lot of fun seeing my work improve. It’s also a lot of fun seeing someone who’s work I admire put up a picture from when he was six! Just shows how everyone starts from scratch, everyone evolves, even the most well known and talented artists. Thank you.

I’m randomly learning how to draw by myself and I learned that I should’t be too down on seeing other people’s works because I know, just like you before I may still be on the starting process. I just wish I can improve just like you. Line webtoon creators like you, shen, instant miso and snailords replied to my messages and fanarts and that motivated me because it seems like you’re not so hard to reach and I can be like you someday. Thank you for sharing your works, continue on inspiring aspiring artists.